Article excerpt

Byline: Neil Connor

The mother of a disabled Solihull girl who has had her operation put back twice has voiced her anger at being informed that the surgery is 'substantially experimental'.

Karen Glenn was also told in a letter that the hip operation on her daughter Kayleigh has not been performed by 'any other surgeon in the world'. The family of 14year-old Kayleigh were dealt a blow earlier this week after they were told by Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic Hospital that the operation would have to be put back from April 16 to April 28.

The delay was caused by a decision to switch the surgery from the ROH to Birmingham Children's Hospital, which has more specialist equipment.

Kayleigh was at the centre of a waiting list storm last year when Downing Street apologised to her family for wrongly informing them the operation date would be brought forward five months to December 2002.

Mrs Glenn claimed she had never been informed of the experimental nature of the surgery, despite the fact the ROH had known about her daughter's hip condition since 1999.

She said: 'I cannot believe they are saying now that this operation is 'experimental' when Kayleigh has been on the waiting list for surgery for months. …